Final Note of Special Issue “Tardigrades Taxonomy, Biology and Ecology”

Tardigrada (water bears) are microscopic invertebrates inhabiting aquatic (freshwater and marine) and terrestrial habitats. They are thriving in almost all Earth ecosystems from deepest oceans to highest mountains, from tropics to polar regions. Water bears are probably most famous for their cryptob...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Diversity
Main Author: Łukasz Kaczmarek
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/d12050169
https://doaj.org/article/e90970886149410885d26f4681532caf
Description
Summary:Tardigrada (water bears) are microscopic invertebrates inhabiting aquatic (freshwater and marine) and terrestrial habitats. They are thriving in almost all Earth ecosystems from deepest oceans to highest mountains, from tropics to polar regions. Water bears are probably most famous for their cryptobiotic abilities, which allow them to survive a broad spectrum of extreme environmental conditions. The Special Issue on tardigrades was launched to popularize research on these fascinating microinvertebrates. The published papers were focused on (a) marine and terrestrial tardigrades diversity, (b) interpopulation variability of Antarctic eutardigrade Paramacrobiotus fairbanksi , (c) encystment in freshwater eutardigrade Thulinius ruffoi and (d) use of a metabarcoding approach to community structures studies in microenvironments.